Why does French wine suck so bad?

[Bosh]

Cheap-ass Australian merlots

There's a few brands of it that taste good enough and anything better is out of my price range thanks to Korean taxes.

[Dis]

Why does wine suck so bad?

Yeah I figure it's an aquired taste like beer. I didn't like beer either when I first tasted it. but if you knew the brand of beer I first tasted, you'd know why. My dad used to drink generic beer because we were poor. Schaeffer and Old Milwaukee. Yuk.

that being said, I can almost stomach white wine. red wine just tastes disgusting for some reason. Perhaps if I tasted the good stuff I'd feel otherwise.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by DAVOUT
As far as I know, Red Beret is a "marketing wine", only built for export; it does not follow the french rule of AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée). Elite producers al all under the AOC system.

Otherwise known as: sell the cheap **** to the foreigners who don't know any better...

A blended wine for £8.50!!?

And the stupid name is a giveaway too...

I have a simple rule for European wines: If I'm not familiar with it and it's not an Appellation wine - don't buy it!

(And we can often buy French AOC wines for as little as £3-4 here)

[MOBIUS]

Oh and Port

Particularly awesome with a strong blue-veined cheese, like Stilton...

[Dinner]

Porto can be very good if they don't make it to sweet. I've had some nice Californian Port which isn't as sweet and so fits my taste buds better.

[The Mad Monk]

Be sure to get real Port.

It dosen't have to be a vintage Port to be good, and in point of fact most Ports are not vintage.

Fonseca Bin 27 is a good place to start. Not too pricey, very tasty, and unlike true vintage Ports -- it's called a "vintage character" Port -- it needs no decanting.

Port has an interesting history, and there are many traditions attached to it.

[Last Conformist]

So ... from buying one overpriced bottle of crap export wine, Oerdin is able to determine that most French wine sucks? Impressive.

[Fake Boris]

If you really paid $17 for a non AOC wine then you're the one to blame.

Look for a "bottled at the propriety" tag next time.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
So ... from buying one overpriced bottle of crap export wine, Oerdin is able to determine that most French wine sucks? Impressive.

It's more of repeated bad experiences. There just seems to be a lot of subpar wine coming out of French and I don't want to put in the effort to sort through the junk to find the gems. It's just to easy to buy a great bottle of New World wine.

[Pekka]

So French wine is like American beer. 99% is piss, but because 1% is decent, it's the greatest thing since the internet?

Let's face it. Both of you guys can't make booze, you can't handle the booze, and you both have hygiene problems (especially French).

[Fake Boris]

If you consider reading the bottle's etiquette before buying it an "effort"...

[Dinner]

It would require a subscription to Wine Spectator or a similiar review magazine. Simply knowing the region is worthless. I want to know if that winery makes good wine or not. The French make it even worse because normally the label doesn't even say what types of grapes are in the wine. Thus unless you have thousands of different wineries memorized you have no clue what you're buying.

That's why it takes to much effort.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Because the weather in Frane is notorious for being wildly inconsistent. The best French wines are among the very best, but sometimes it's just a bad year.

IIUC the best vineyards/bottlers wont release anything under their main label in bad year, instead they release the bad stuff under a "B" label.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
If you really paid $17 for a non AOC wine then you're the one to blame.

Look for a "bottled at the propriety" tag next time.

that doesnt work for Burgundy or Beujolais, though, does it?

[Dinner]

Makes sense.